


blood and poetry

by Molotov_Man



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I will go back and edit this eventually, NejiTen - Freeform, Whump, this is a FUCKING mess I’m only posting this for chandu (affectionate), tw child abuse (not described)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-28 23:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30147456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molotov_Man/pseuds/Molotov_Man
Summary: Her father, well. She didn’t like to think about him. She wondered vaguely if found family could be more to her speed.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten
Kudos: 6





	blood and poetry

**Author's Note:**

> tw child abuse  
> Ily chandu feel better soon <3 drink some fucking water dumbass

Less than a minute. Less than a minute was how long it would usually take her to traverse the village, bounding over roofs and treetops.

Even filled with adrenaline, this time it took her ten.

She knocked softly on the door, her knuckles smarting even at minimal pressure. “Neji, it’s me.”

Neji opened the door, yawning. Tenten had come by his home late at night before, long made recognizable to the guards of the Hyuuga compound. Sometimes she’d ask to train or get a drink with him when she couldn’t sleep, and one night when she was already drunk she’d come to his doorstep just for a hug. By the timid sound of her voice, he’d assumed it’d be like the latter situation.

But she wasn’t drunk. In fact, she was painfully sober, and covered in dark, dark bruises, blood dripping down her front.

“Oh,” he said lamely.

Tenten caught his gaze; her eyes were dull and exhausted. She stumbled slightly, and Neji caught her around the waist.

“Sorry,” she wheezed. “You were closer than the hospital.”

“And that’s where we’re going. Arms around my neck.”

She would’ve argued, but couldn’t find the strength in her. He lifted her easily and started the trek away.

“Do you want to tell me what happened, or do you want to wait?”

Her grip around his neck loosened — it didn’t matter, she could’ve let go and his hold on her wouldn’t have changed. But she was folding in on herself. “Please don’t be mad,” she whispered.

He stopped in his tracks, looking down at her. “Mad?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

She went to open her mouth but drew a blank. She blinked dazedly.

Neji gave a short hum. “I’m not mad.”

He started walking again, making an extra effort to cradle her head.

“Tell me how you’re feeling while we walk.” He measured his tone, trying to reestablish her peace of mind.

“I’m really tired.”

“Alright. What else?”

She thought for a moment. “I think my ribs are broken,” she said gently, almost to herself.

Neji’s pace picked up instantly. “Your ribs are _what_?”

She flinched. “Please don’t be mad.”

He forced himself to take a deep breath but didn’t slow down. “I’m not. I’m not mad at you. Just, what else is hurt, Ten?”

“He stabbed me in the shoulder.”

Neji was feverish with rage. No one laid hands on her like that. Not a single goddamn soul. And he was going to make sure everyone knew it.

He dare not ask who ‘he’ was, lest he allow himself to be distracted from his primary mission: Tenten. He could see the hospital now, and picked his pace up once again, kicking the door open.

“What on earth—“ Sakura was behind the desk, rifling through files, along with another attendant. 

She leapt over the counter and motioned Neji to the nearest open room, disappearing thereafter.

Neji placed her on the bed. “You’re safe now. We’re here.”

She took a shuddering breath and pressed her eyes closed. “It hurts.”

Neji swallowed and traced over her bloodied knuckles. “I know. I know. Not much longer, okay?”

She made a strangled noise deep in her throat and gritted her teeth. “I didn’t...want you to see me like this. I went to you on instinct.”

“Shh, just breathe. I don’t want you to strain your ribs anymore,” he said. “You can always come to me.”

Tsunade came in with Sakura close behind and took the opposite side of Tenten’s bed.

“God in heaven, kid, what happened to you?” She shot a glare at Neji. “These better not be sparring injuries.”

Neji straightened. “Of course not. I would never hurt her like this.”

Tsunade’s gaze lost its heat and she turned back to the problem at hand. “Alright, just relax. Are you going to tell us what happened?”

Tenten tried to push herself up, only for Tsunade’s steady hand to press her back, scanning her body with healing chakra.

“Just lay there. You have three cracked ribs on one side, a puncture wound and an uncomfortable amount of bruising.”

Tenten was an extremely capable shinobi. Tsunade almost didn’t want to know what could do something like this to her.

Tsunade placed her warm palm on Tenten’s forehead and moved soothing chakra through her skin. “Everything is okay. Just tell us how you got hurt, and we’ll help you.”

“My father,” she whispered.

The air in the room stilled. No breath, no movement.

Neji knew the only thing standing between him and glorious revenge was Tenten. She needed him now, and had sought him out personally. He wasn’t going to waste that trust.

Even Tsunade’s eyes were devastatingly angry. “Sakura, there’s an Anbu guard stationed in the lobby. Bring him here.”

Sakura nodded and dashed off, nearly colliding with Ino in the hallway, who followed her when she saw her panicked look.

“You’re surrounded by shinobi in this hospital, you’ll be okay now.” She kept her hand on her forehead but directed her speech to Neji. “You brought her?”

“She showed up at my door.”

“You were right to take her here. We’re going to find him. Could I speak with you in the hall?”

Neji nodded and stood robotically, his eyes scarcely leaving Tenten’s pale face.

“Has she said anything else to you?”

“She could barely talk when she got to me.” He stared at the door, expression unreadable. “She said she didn’t want me to see her like that.”

Tsunade shook her head. “It doesn’t add up. She’s very strong. There’s no way her father could have done this to her unaided. He’s not even a shinobi.”

“She’ll add it up herself when she’s better,” Neji said lowly, eyes flashing.

“Easy, Hyuuga. I wouldn’t ask her to do anything she couldn’t handle yet. I was just wondering whether she said anything to you.” Her fingers tapped the wall. “Has she talked about her father before?”

“She doesn’t like to. She’s lived alone with him since her mother died, but other than that, it’s unlikely she’s said much else to anyone. She doesn’t like to be home. She won’t say, but I think she does a lot of staying at hotels and friends’ houses.”

“I’ll line up an apartment for her. So she doesn’t have to stay in a place she hated.”

Neji dipped his head. “How’re her injuries?”

“She’ll be alright. I can heal the worst of it. I’m more worried about the trauma of being beaten half to death by a parent. She’ll need someone to look after her for a while.”

“I’ll do it,” he said instantly.

“I figured you might.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. “She did show up at your door. I’ve known a woman or two, and that means they feel safe with you.”

Sakura and Ino rounded the corner with the Anbu running after them.

“Good. Leopard, find Tenten’s father and bring him into custody.”

The Anbu nodded and slipped off. The girls waited for instruction.

“Sakura, focus on the abdomen while I do the ribs. Ino, puncture wound. We want to eliminate extended internal bleeding.”

“Yes, Tsunade.”

•••

She was asleep.

Neji watched her for more than an hour, loathe to move her when she looked so peaceful, even as her bruises and pallor formed a sickly contrast to white sheets. She needed to rest. She was so goddamn tired recently, barely pushing herself through training and shirking off social events. Gai had started to get concerned.

They all had. 

But he had to get her up eventually, and moved back to his house at least until her father was in custody. She’d been cleared to leave. He was just reluctant to force her to go.

She cracked one eye open and took a deep breath, testing her chest.

“You’ll be sore for a few days, but they’re healed. Your ribs, I mean.”

“Oh.”

There was a silence, neither of them saying anything. Neji couldn’t take his eyes off her and she couldn’t bear to face him.

“Thanks for...taking me here. You stayed.”

She said it like a statement but he knew it was a question. “Of course I did. I told you I’ll always be here for you.”

More silence. Discomfort and the memories of pain swimming through the air.

“Are you ready to go?”

Her breath caught in her throat and she shot up, leaning away from him. “I can’t go back.”

His hands reached to steady her instinctively, his eyes wide. “No, no, I meant to my place. If you’re okay with that.”

Her fingers tapped the sheets nervously. “Is he...?”

“Anbu is looking for him. He’ll be found. He won’t ever touch you again, I promise.”

She frowned deeply, then put her head in her hands. “God, what did I do?”

His fingers touched her hesitantly, barely grazing her back with the pads of his fingers. She took a stuttering breath but didn’t push him off or flinch, so he let his hand rest on her. “You didn’t do anything. He was wrong to hurt you.”

“I don’t want him to go to prison.”

He thought for a moment. “I think he needs to. To get better. Away from you.”

“He’s all I’ve got left.” Her posture had dropped completely, the only thing left to keep her grounded being the hand on her back.

“That’s not true,” he said softly. “You have your team, always and forever. And we won’t let you get hurt like this.”

Her shoulders just shook.

Neji moved closer. “I’m here now.”

She squeezed her arm once, tightly, before sighing and loosening up. “Thank you, Neji. For everything. I’m gonna go.”

“No, you aren’t. Tsunade said you shouldn’t be alone. I don’t want you to be alone.” Even if she was given the opportunity, Neji knew she wouldn’t go to a place to rest; she’d go to a bar or some other location where she could take out her frustrations.

“What, then?”

“Come stay with me. Let me help you even a fraction of the amount you’ve helped me.”

“You really want me to stay with you?”

“Yes. Of course. You’re always welcome in my home, Tenten. You’re hurting and I just want to help.”

She stared into his eyes, searching. “Okay.”

He helped her up and guided her out the door, wincing as she cringed at every loud noise. When they reached the door, she stopped completely.

“My father is still out there?”

“To my knowledge, yes. How about we get a jonin to walk us back, hmm?”

She nodded, still leaning heavily against him.

“Heard you needed a jonin?”

Neji whirled around, one palm raised, but relaxed when he saw it was Kakashi.

“Tsunade told me the situation. I’ll walk you home if you’d like.”

“Thank you.” Neji nodded.

“Sure,” he led the way out the doors, “I was just waiting around in Gai’s hospital room. He broke his arm climbing a tree. Fool.”

Tenten smiled slightly, hearing her sensei’s name.

“I’m sure he wishes he could be in my place. He loves you two very much. I’m happy to stand in for him, though. I’m...fond of you all as well.”

“Even Lee?” Neji smiled, seeing the effect it was having on Tenten.

“Well, I still hang around with Gai, don’t I?” Kakashi blinked at the girl-woman-soldier beside him. “If you need anything — anything at all — Gai and I always have a place for you.”

“Thank you, sensei.”

The Hyuuga guards let them through wordlessly and Tenten found herself staring down Neji’s door as Kakashi took his leave.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly.

She nodded. “Neji?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared.”

Neji blinked. Tenten was never scared. She was never scared in any of the missions he’d had with her, every enemy they’d faced. “Tenten.”

She turned her head and their faces were close.

“I’m here. How can I help?”

She pulled herself against him, clinging weakly to his shoulders and resting against his chest. He rocked her gently, swaying under the awning.

“It’s okay, baby,” he mumbled into her temple.

She tightened her grip on him.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking, was that okay?”

“Do it again,” said her raspy voice.

“Do what again?”

“Say it again.”

“It’s alright, darling. That good?”

“Yeah.” She tried to peel off him and open the door, but Neji caught her and pulled her back in.

“Hey. It’s okay to be scared. You don’t need to be fearless for me; I already know how strong you are.” He rubbed a circle over her spine, to which she sighed gratefully. “This is your space, Ten, do whatever you want with it.”

She tucked her head into his neck. “Are you going to hurt me? I know you’re not, I just...I want to hear it out loud. Which is stupid. But would you?”

Neji felt a surge of protective energy. “I’m not going to hurt you. Not now or ever.”

She took a shaky breath and Neji held her a little tighter.

“You okay, love?”

“I just want to stay here.”

“At my house?”

“In this hug.”

Neji tried to calm his thoughts. He was desperately chasing the best course of action, always slightly unsure of what to do. But he would try, for her.

Tenten shivered and a new path split off.

“How about we go inside, hmm? It’s cold out. We can hug there, if you want.”

Tenten didn’t look like herself. She looked fragile. Neji locked the door behind them, which he almost never did.

She scanned his room nervously as if someone was going to jump out at her. Neji cleared his throat softly.

“I can get a guest bed ready, or you can sleep in here if you’d feel safer. Or we can eat, if you’re hungry.”

Tenten didn’t respond. Her breathing picked up almost imperceptibly.

“Hey,” he said warmly, his hand over her shoulder, “come back to me. You want to lay down for a minute?”

He nudged her lightly towards his bed and she sat almost robotically. Moving to the other side, he opened his arms in invitation. 

She blinked at him. Breathed out. Leaned into his chest.

“He’s my father.”

“I know. He wasn’t good for you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I didn’t fight back. I’m sorry.”

“You...didn’t fight back?”

“I couldn’t hurt him. I just couldn’t.”

Neji pushed every ounce of reverence he had into his touch. “Sweetheart.”

A tear slid down her cheek. In her head was a constant loop of shinobi don’t cry shinobi don’t cry shinobi don’t cry—

Neji brushed it away. “It’s okay. It’s all okay. Just rest now.”

She sobbed breathlessly, platitudes and excuses sticking in her throat. She didn’t have anything left. No words and no where else to go.

“Shh, alright. That’s it.” He rubbed circles into the tight knots of her back, holding her in his arms.

If there was one thing she didn’t do, it was cry, certainly not in front of others. Neji began to questions whether she had an outlet at all. The shake in her muscles didn’t feel like one night: they felt like a lifetime of hurting without a tear.

“N-Neji,” she forced out, “I can’t, can’t do this. It hurts so much.”

“I know, I know. No more fighting, it’s time for you to take a break. It’s too much. Let me shoulder this, okay?”

She clutched her stomach, every movement an earth-shaking effort for her exhausted form.

“You’re trying to take this alone. Just let me have this. Let me take you.”

“I *feel* alone.”

Neji eased apart, frowning when she let him without protest and fell away like her skin burdened her. He pulled a blanket over her shoulders and let her lay between his legs, her head on his collarbone. “You’re not. I’m sorry you feel like that.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry you feel like you have to watch over me. You don’t. I can endure, I’m okay.”

He set his chin on her head, his lips pressing briefly against her hair. “You’re not. And we love you anyway.”

She breathed him in for seconds or perhaps minutes, trying to stay calm, and gripped him tighter. “Hey, Neji,”

“Yeah?”

“This is gonna sound weird.” Her voice was hoarse.

He smirked in that quietly pleased way that was so natural to him, glad to hear her asking for something, anything. “Mm.”

“Can I wear one of your shirts?”

“Of course you can. I was going to offer anyway, seeing as this one is bloody.” He lifted her off of him gently and pulled a shirt from his closet. “Can I help?”

“H-help?” She asked, taken aback.

“Your shoulder is torn. It should be fine, I suppose, since Tsunade had her hands in your healing, but I don’t want you to strain yourself.”

“Um, yeah.”

He looked pointedly at somewhere above her head and she lifted her arms, letting him take her old shirt and slide the new one over her shoulders. “Better?”

“Yeah.” Tenten watched him place her shirt in the sink. “You don’t think it’s weird?”

“Why should it be?”

“It’s usually a sign of, mm, I don’t know, ownership, or intimacy or something. It feels like you should think it’s weird.”

“You’re my best friend and you’ll wear my shirts if you want, is how I see it. But if you insist, I’ll think it’s weird.”

She gave him a disparaging look but all that was behind it was exhaustion.

He softened. “Alright. You need to sleep now.”

He stood, perhaps too abruptly, and Tenten grimaced. Neji made a point of walking slower than usual as he fetched water and a mild painkiller from the cabinet.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she said softly.

He scrutinized her and still left the pills at her bedside. “Would you tell me if it did hurt?”

She said nothing, just sat there with slumped shoulders and empty eyes. Too tired to even lie.

“Goodnight, Tenten.”

“No, wait!” She grabbed his arm, staring into him pleadingly, revitalized by sudden fear. “Don’t go. Please, don’t go. I’ll—I’ll take it, if that’s what you want. Please.”

His eyes widened. “Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m not going anywhere. Do you want me to stay with you?”

“Yes.”

He retreated to his side of the bed and laid down, watching her carefully for discomfort. “This okay?”

She nodded, staring at her idle hands in her lap. Neji reached over and took one into his palm.

“Want to answer one question for me?”

“Mhm.” She followed his movements with her eyes.

“You didn’t throw any punches, so why are your hands bloodied?”

It was then that Neji noticed the slight trembling in her fingers, like her soul was rattling inside her looking for escape. 

“They’re always like that.” She laughed drily and it quickly devolved to a cough. “That’s why I wear gloves or bandages.”

Neji made a displeased noise in the back of his throat, staring at the multitude of scars and cuts and bruises. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I should’ve noticed.” Neji got up, much more slowly this time, and pulled bruise cream out of the cabinet.

He took her hand in his once again and examined it, rubbing the cream into every sore place. Tenten sighed.

“I bet it hurts.”

“Not much.”

“I’m starting to think your pain tolerance far outpaces any of ours.”

She shrugged.

“I also think you need to sleep.” Finished with her hands, he placed the container on the table and settled next to her once again.

She nodded once, cleanly. Neji turned the light off and they laid there in the dark, barely breathing for fear of disturbing the other. Minutes passed at agonizing pace. 

“Why can’t you sleep?”

“Why can’t you?” she grumbled.

“If that’s how you want to play it. I’m worried about you and I want to make sure you’re safe.”

Tenten rolled over so she was tucked against his side, her head on his shoulder. “Goodnight, Neji.”

“Goodnight,” he breathed.


End file.
